Milan Opens and Closes

NOTE: History is always changing – or rather our knowledge of historical events change when new evidence is discovered. The information below is accurate on the date of publication. Further research may reveal information which changes or replaces some of the details. Check later postings to keep up to date by selecting “Olympics” in the search box or the tag list.

There was little overt acknowledgement of the lgbt community in the Milan Cortina opening and closing Olympic ceremonies. This was a refreshing change from the blatant virtue signalling of some previous ceremonies (such as Paris 2024). What acknowledgement the ceremonies did contain were championed by the diverse cast members and performers who were treated like everyone else, as an equal participant, not an exhibit to justify “inclusion”

But there were some examples on our community being involved for something other than their gender or sexuality – their talent and desire to provide a good ceremony.

FASHION AND COSTUME

We’ll begin with what has become a frequent element in an Olympic ceremony, a fashion catwalk. I wrote about the first official Olympic fashion show last week, and figure skating has always had a large element of fashion in the costumes. Today we’ll concentrate on fashion in the ceremonies.

There are three categories of fashion that I apply to Olympic ceremonies. These are: 1) a specific fashion-based segment involving some form of catwalk; 2) costumes worn by performers and participants; and 3) outfits worn by the athletes in their entry parade. All categories have had contributions from prominent lgbt fashion designers in the past.

For category 1, there have been several catwalk elements in previous opening ceremonies, including Italy’s previous Winter Olympic Games in Turin 2006. The Italian national flags on both occasions were brought into the stadium by a famous model in a dress specially designed by that same well-known designer, the late Giorgio Armani (1934-2025). Model Vittoria Ceretti entered the Milan stadium carrying the Italian flag and wearing a white Armani dress. Model Carla Bruni performed the same duty in Turin 2006. Preceding Vittoria Ceretti were rows of models in three columns in Armani trouser suits in the colours of the Italian flag – Red, white and green.

In category 2 we had another flag-bearer. This time it was a boxer from Paris 2024 and the first member of the Refugee team to become Olympic champion, Cindy Ngamba (b.1998). She was one of the 8 escorts carrying the Olympic flag into the stadium. Armani designed their costumes as well. There were no other known openly lgbt fashion or costume designers in either the 2026 opening or closing ceremonies.

Several designers contributed to some of category 3’s athletes outfits. We encounter Armani again. As he has done many times, Armani designed the outfits worn by the Italian team. Team GB’s outfits included knitted scarves and hats designed by Olympic diver Tom Daley (b.1994).

Shortly after the entry of the Italian flag a poem by Count Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) was recited. I’d like to digress a little here. Leopardi is one of Italy’s greatest poets and philosophers, if not their greatest during the 19th century. For a long time there has been speculation and debate about his sexuality, ignited by romantic comments made in his letters to his friend Antonio Ranieri.

Although we will never know for sure, I tend to agree with the prominent Italian gay historian, Milan-born Giovanni Dall’Orto (b.1958) who believes Leopardi was gay. You can read Dall’Orto’s reasoning here.

THE ATHLETE’S PARADE

For the second time in a row, the athlete’s parade departed from the traditional. For Paris 2024 the parade was moved onto the River Seine in a flotilla of boats. For Milan the parade was spilt across four locations. Being the first official multi-location Olympics not every athlete could make it to the opening ceremony if they were expected to start competing the next morning. If you saw the opening ceremony you would have noticed how many nations did not parade in Milan but elsewhere. The format seems to have worked well, and it is possible that it will be copied at future games now that the International Olympic Committee is moving away from single host cities to a multi-city, host region format.

Bearers of the national flags are always a highly regarded honour for the athlete chosen. In Milan only one lgbt athlete was chosen. She was Nicole Silveira (b.1994), representing Brazil in skeleton racing, who carried the flag in Cortina. The only other flag-bearer at the opening ceremony was the above-mentioned Cindy Ngamba.

The final contribution at the opening ceremony was by Paolo Egonu (b.1998), who carried the Olympic torch in the stadium with two fellow Olympic handball champions for Italy from Paris 2024.

This brings us to the cauldron, or rather cauldrons, because I’m sure you were aware that there were two cauldron that were lit. Their design was inspired by knot-work featured in art by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), whose legacy in Milan was covered in the previous article.

A lot has been said in the media about Milan Cortina 2026 being the first to have two cauldrons. Those of us who are Olympic nerds know this is not entirely true. However, It is the first time two cauldrons have been lit during the same opening ceremony in different cities immediately one after the other. As far as the Winter Olympic goes, the Innsbruck 2012 Youth Olympics had three cauldron lit one after the other, but they were in the same venue to celebrate Innsbruck being the first city to host three Olympics Games (1964, 1976 and 2012). The 2024 Summer Olympics had two cauldrons lit in different cities – Paris and Tahiti. In fact, two cauldrons have been lit before (Helsinki 1952, Melbourne-Stockholm 1956). Often the stadium cauldron has been temporary and a permanent one was lit elsewhere (Vancouver 2010, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022). An honourable mention goes to London 2012 who had mini-cauldrons for each competing nation that joined together to form one single flame. This was extinguished after the ceremony and relit after it was moved from the centre of the stadium to one end. This photo below (copyright Colin Bilton) shows me at the London 2012 Paralympic Games and the Paralympic cauldron in the position it also occupied during the Olympics.

THE CLOSING CEREMONY

Only a handful of lgbt participants took part in the closing ceremony. Let’s start with more flags. Unlike the lone lgbt national flag carrier at the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony had three, all chosen by their fellow athletes for their athletic achievements. They were Tineke den Dulk (Belgium), Martina Sablikova (Czech Republic), and Hilary Knight (USA).

After the ceremonial entry of the Italian flag there was segment featuring gay ballet dancer Roberto Bolle (b.1975). He would return at the end of the closing ceremony as one of the principal performers who symbolically extinguished a group of candelabras which represented the extinguishing of the Olympic flame. As mentioned last time, Roberto had taken part in the torch relay. Roberto had also performed in the opening ceremony of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics, the only performer to have featured in both Italian host ceremonies.

A new element was introduced into the Milan ceremony, and it happened twice. At the raising of the Italian flag at the start of the ceremony, all of the Italian medallists paraded into the stadium and stood by the flag poles. There were no lgbt athletes among them, but later on during the handover section from Milan to the French Alps (host of the 2030 Winter Olympics), there was one among the French medallists who stood in a circle in the middle of the arena. He was the only gay male Olympic champion of Milan 2026, Guillaume Cizeron (b.1994) who, with his ice dance partner won the gold medal. He is also the only male lgbt athlete who successfully defended his title from Beijing 2022.

I can’t help but think that this element may have been partly inspired by a similar event in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. On that occasion there were 260 British summer and winter Olympic medallists, some from the London 1948 Olympics, who formed a tribune of honour for the six young athletes who would light the cauldron.

As usual, the closing ceremony ended with a party. Among the DJs was Thomas Pentz (b.1978), aka Diplo, who once described himself as “not not gay”. This Grammy-winning performer and music producer has worked with many international stars over the years. For the Milan ceremony he teamed up with his fellow members of his electronic dance group Major Lazer.

And that rounds up the ceremonies of the Milan Cortina Olympics 2026. All that remains for me to do is finish the analysis of the all the sporting results and that’ll be it until Los Angeles 2028. This analysis has been delayed a couple of weeks because I have had some personal issues I needed to deal with. Hopefully, I’ll have it all ready for you by Easter.

Advent 3: Christmas is a Bit of a Drag

Modern drag has advanced little since the start of this century (if at all). Much of it is lingering in the style of the 1980s, desperately trying to appear relevant and significant in today’s world, and failing, due to drag’s outdated gay stereotypes. However, it is far advanced from the drag and female impersonations of a hundred years ago.

If we go back further to look at what influenced modern drag we find the British pantomime dame and, even earlier, the character of the Italian commedia dell’arte. And even further back than that, we have comic female characters played by men in medieval mystery plays based on stories in the Bible.

It has to be admitted that these very early drag-like performances were purely for entertainment purposes and no gender identity was assigned to the performer. It is well-known that at one time women were not allowed, or discouraged, to be actors. That meant that any female character, including the Virgin Mary in Christmas nativity plays, were played by men or boys.

One development of the medieval mystery play is one I wrote about in 2019, the French Société Mattachine. In that article I explained how the early gay rights organisation in the USA, the Mattachine Society, was named after these medieval performers.

The Mattachines were not confined to France. The name seems to derive from the Italian “mattaccino”, which comes from “matto” meaning “mad”. From this we understand how the comic characters found in various mattachine groups throughout medieval Europe act in over-the-top performances, as if mad.

If we skip across to Spain we find the matachines who were popular in the 17th century, quite some time after other European variations had begun to die away. Because of this, the Spanish matachines is the form which has survived today – but not in Spain.

The Spanish matachines had developed into a more musical and dance form rather than drama. It still had the stock characters familiar in all its forms in Europe – a hero, a young woman, an old man, a villain, and more pertinent for our purposes today, an old woman played in drag. A particularly Spanish addition to the cast was a bull.

But what have the matachines got to do with Christmas? Bear with me while I digress. We have to look at how the matachines dances evolved after the Spanish colonised Central America. There’s a debate which is pertinent to the matachines, and Christmas in general. It concerns what I believe is a common misconception constantly repeated at this time of year that Christmas traditions are actually pagan. No matter how much research in many academic papers and books I can find no actual proof of this, only a lot of unsupported opinion based on coincidence from the 18th century onwards (not to mention modern crap about Santa and Coca Cola). Thankfully, an increasing number of qualified historians have debunked many of these pagan lies. Just because two things sound or behave the same it doesn’t prove they’re connected.

Usually, the Christian Church is presented as adopting pagan practices to encourage indigenous communities to convert to Christianity. I believe the opposite. I’m not alone in this. This 2021 article on the history of matachines in Mexico from the Universad Nacional Autómona de México comes to the same conclusion. It is becoming clear through modern research that it was newly converted indigenous communities who looked at what Christian practices were similar to their own and then adapted them without losing their own cultural identity. The Christian Church authorities, in their turn, saw no reason to object and, as long as Christian doctrine was followed, accepted the new ethnic take on their practices (except a handful of puritan extremists, like those today who want to ban “Harry Potter” because it “promotes witchcraft”).

The Spanish Conquistadors spread their matachine dances across Central America. In Mexico the Aztecs in particular merged it with their own dance rituals and produced a variation which they still use today, a variation that actually includes a king character based on Moctezuma (Montezuma). This is performed on special occasions, though not often at Christmas as with their US Pueblo counterparts. It also has a slightly different name – matlachine.

The two female characters of the Pueblo matachine are called Malinche and Perejundia (or Abuela). The Perejundia is always played by a man in drag, and the Malinche is now usually played by a girl. They represent opposites. Malinche is a beautiful, young, innocent girl, while Perejundia is an ugly, bawdy and coarse old woman. The video above shows one of the few clear visual representations on YouTube of the bawdy Perejundia.

Usually, matachine dances are performed during Advent, most often on December 12th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrating the conception of the Virgin Mary (often referred to as Our Lady of Guadelupe). This is also the date which is generally considered as the start of Christmas in the Pueblo communities. In fact, several matachine performances have taken place this week. Because the celebration is religious and often performed inside churches, the Perejundia character is sometimes omitted. The video below is the matachine from two days ago in Laredo, Texas. You can see the Malinche played by a very young girl, and the old man character, but no Perejundia.

Prof. Brenda Romero of the University of Colorado, an expert on hispano-indigenous music, has noted that matachines among Pueblo communities have become quite inclusive. She says that gay men (and women, as can be seen in the video below) are actively involved. I may be assuming too much, and this is only my theory, but are some Pueblo gay men specifically drawn to playing the Perjundia in the same way that some gay men in the USA become drag performers? I have absolutely no evidence or proof of this, but it’s an interesting thought.

Whatever the gender identity of the person playing the Perejundia in the Christmas matachines, it is clear that there is a direct line of descent from medieval mystery plays to the commedia dell’arte, the Perejundia, the British pantomime dame and modern drag queens.

Next week we look at a Hellenic Christmas gift-giver and his association with a reluctant priest.

Dancing With the Spartans

Not long to go now before the Tokyo Olympics, so I thought I’d take a look at another of the many ancient Greek competitive festivals that I write about now and again.

Our modern period of late June and early July was the first month of the Spartan year. As such it was regarded as something special and the Spartans celebrated with a festival called Gymnopaedia. It was one of their most important festivals and, like the others, was marked with contests of physical prowess.

The Gymnopaedia is thought to have originated in about the year 668 BC. It was held in honour of the god Apollo (whose love affair with the Spartan Prince Hyakinthos gave rise to the Hyakinthia festival), as well as Artemis (goddess of the hunt and Apollo’s sister) and Leto (their mother).

Just a few years before the Gymnopaedia began, perhaps only a generation of two, Sparta had introduced pederasty – boy-love – as a social norm in their society. There’s a danger of confusing Spartan and Greek pederasty with the modern concept of homosexuality. For the Spartans, and the other Greek cultures that adopted it later, pederasty was part of a boy’s rite of passage into adulthood. Once a man (usually a soldier or athlete) had chosen one boy to mentor and assist in his progression through puberty and into adulthood with regular sex, the emotional bond of friendship that was formed would (or should) remain for the rest of their lives.

The very name Gymnopaedia probably illustrates its sexual nature. The name comes from the two Greek words “gymnos”, meaning naked, and “paedia”, meaning youth. Literally, “naked youth”. As was common in the festivals across Greece, contestants competed naked. Some historians have speculated that the Gymnopaedia became the most popular means by which Spartan men chose who was to be their boy-lovers. Another theory about the name is that contestants competed without arms or weapons.

To regard the Gymnopaedia as a sports festival like the modern Olympics will be only half correct. Originally there were no athletic contests – running, wrestling, chariot racing, that sort of thing. The focus was on choreographed war dances and songs. If a comparison has to be made, think of these performances as the ancient equivalent of rhythmic gymnastics, ironically, a sport (with synchronised swimming) in which there is no equivalent competition in the modern Olympics for men. Men are banned from these sports, yet women are banned from none – proof that the IOC’s claim of gender equality is hypocrisy.

The main dances of the Gymnopaedia were performed by boys up to the age of about 15. These boys would have already undergone some military training for several years. Their movements would mimic military stances, like the action of throwing a spear or wielding a sword. The movements were designed specifically to show off the boy’s physical appearance and grace. The military songs that accompanied them would tell of the heroic deeds of their ancestors and the gods. At other venues around Sparta other dances were performed by older age groups and men. These were more of a celebratory nature and not as competitive as the boys’ dances.

A bas relief showing soldiers performing what is known as a pyrrhic dance, a dance similar to that performed at the Gymnopaedia. This relief dates from the 1st century BC but is based on one from the 4th century BC. It is currently on display in the Vatican Museum.

Over the centuries more music, dances and athletic contests were added and the whole festival began to stretch over a week long. It became increasingly popular, not only with the Spartans but with other Greeks who came to watch as well – men only, of course, because women weren’t allowed to watch or compete. There was another group who weren’t allowed to watch. These were the agamoi, unmarried men over the age of 30. You can find out why in this article I wrote last year about the Spartan harvest festival, the Karneia.

The competitors were divided into groups with each area of Sparta represented by a team. Even though all participants in the Gymnopaedia were naked the team leaders were allowed to wear something – a crown of palm leaves. This is said to have been in honour of the Spartan victory at the Battle of Thyrea in 546 BC, an event which was often praised during the war songs. Although it has no real lgbt connection, other than the Spartan combatants had boy-lovers, the story of the battle is quite interesting.

The battle is also known as the Battle of the 300 Champions. This may remind you of the famous film about Spartans called “300”. The connection is tenuous – the battle got its name because each side, the Spartans and the Argives, decided that only 300 of their best soldiers should fight to the death. The last man standing was the victor.

The battle began at around mid-day. By dusk two Argive soldiers stood on the battlefield, looking around them at the carnage of 598 bodies around them. They limped back to their camp and claimed victory. However, back on the battlefield, one severely wounded Spartan soldier was still alive. He managed to rise to his feet and stagger back to his camp. The Spartans then claimed victory. The Argives were very angry and refused to accept that their victory had been disputed. They attacked the Spartans, who thrashed the Argives and sent them back home. The Spartans celebrated with their usual victory games.

The film “300” was about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. The Spartan leader was played by Gerard Butler. Let’s link “300” to the modern Olympics. On 13th March 2020, during the 2,500th anniversary year of the battle, Gerard Butler took part in the Olympic torch relay before it was stopped due to the covid pandemic. He ran with the torch into the centre of Sparta itself, lit the ceremonial cauldron and shouted his famous line “This is Sparta!” Sadly, he didn’t run naked like the ancient Greeks would have done in their various torch relays.

And with that I’ll leave ancient Greece and look forward to Tokyo 2020. Next Thursday I’ll preview the games with an overview of the known lgbt athletes who will be competing and a few comparisons to previous games. I’ll also look at the returning Olympians and how they stand in the all-time lgbt medal table. Two weeks after that I’ll look at the Tokyo results and see which of them rise and which of them fell in the table, and which Olympic newcomers made their mark.

80 More Gays Around the World: 2) A Dancing Legacy

Last time on “80 More Gays”: 1) k. d. lang (b.1961) performed at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics which featured the “Battle of the Brians” between skaters 2) Brian Orser (b.1961) and 3) Brian Boitano (b.1963), the latter skating to music from the ballet “Les Patineurs” which was originally choreographed by 4) Sir Frederick Ashton (1904-1988).

4) Sir Frederick Ashton was not the first choice of choreographer the brand new ballet, “Les Patineurs” (The Skaters). The musical director of the Vic-Wells Ballet Company in London, Constant Lambert, who had come across an old programmer from the ballet “Les Plaisirs de l’Hiver, ou, Les Patineurs” and this gave him the idea of creating a new ballet with a skating theme.

Lambert picked out some tunes and songs from a couple of operas by Giacmomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) – “Le Prophete” and “L’Etoile du Nord”. He arranged them into his new ballet, from which 3) Brian Boitano would select music for his short programme in 1988.

Lambert had thought of asking renowned ballet dancer Ninette de Valois to choreograph “Les Patineurs”, but Sir Frederick Ashton heard Lambert playing the music on his piano and urged Lambert to let him choreograph the ballet instead.

“Les Patineurs” premiered on 16th February 1937 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Within three months the BBC transmitted a live performance from Alexandra Palace in one of the earliest ballets shown on television.

Sir Frederick began a long dancing association with Ninette de Valois in 1931. He started creating ballets for the Vic-Wells Ballet Company which she founded and he became resident choreographer. Throughout his career Sir Frederick created or choreographed over fifty ballets.

After his death the rights and royalties to his ballets went to various friends and colleagues. “Les Patineurs” was left to 5) Brian Shaw (1928-1992).

Brian Shaw (whose full surname was Earnshaw) had performed in “Les Patineurs” since the 1940s to great acclaim. He had a “Billie Elliott”-style background – a working-class boy who wanted to become a ballet dancer. He moved from Yorkshire to London to study at Sadler’s Wells, the new name for the Vic-Wells Ballet Company, and became a solo dancer at the young age of 16.

Within a couple of years Brian Shaw was promoted to principal dancer and had roles and ballets created especially for him. One of those roles was created in 1951 by Sir Frederick Ashton in a new ballet called “Tiresias”.

“Tiresias” was created for the Festival of Britain, a massive national celebration of arts and culture. The ballet received its premiere on 9th July 1951 with Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in attendance. Despite critical reviews the ballet was produced another 22 times in the following four years.

Long-time readers of my blog may recognised the name Tiresias. He was a figure from Greek mythology about whom I wrote several years ago in two articles. He was the blind prophet and transgender priestess 6) Tiresias.

Perhaps the reason the critics didn’t like the ballet was because of the transgender theme. Perhaps it was a concept that the 1950s were not ready for.

The role created by Sir Frederick Ashton for Brian Shaw was not the title role. That was split between Michael Somes and Margot Fonteyn. Brian Shaw played one of the two snakes having sex that Tiresias encounters. Striking one of the snakes caused Tiresias to change sex. The story is told in more detail in my previous articles.

One other aspect of the legend of Tiresias is that he was struck blind. My previous articles mentioned how it was the goddess Hera who blinded him but ancient myths often have variations. Among these is a story in which he was blinded by the gods because he was revealing their secrets to the mortal world. Another variation, which became popular as the inspiration for poetry and art in Victorian England, was that Tiresias was blinded by another Greek goddess, one who, like Tiresias, had transgender qualities. She was 7) Athena.

Next time on “80 More Gays”: We take an odyssey to wonder at some ancients buildings.

Around the World in Another 80 Gays: Part 35) What a Performance

Previously on “Another 80 Gays” : The English politician 72) John Hervey, Lord Hervey (1696-1743) was satirised as 73) Sporus (c.49-69), the youth married to 74) Emperor Nero (37-68), famous for having watched Rome burn from the gardens of 75) Gaius Maecenas (68 BC-8 BC), an arts patron who fell in love with a pantomime performer called 76) Bathyllus (c.60 BC –c. 2 BC).

75) Gaius Maecenas loved all forms of entertainment and was patron to many writers and performers. In his villa in Rome, from where Nero is said to have watched the city burn, Meacenas built performing areas similar to modern stages.

At this time one form of entertainment was increasing in popularity. It was a poetry and dance act called pantomime performed by a solo artist, usually based on stories from mythology. Different characters were represented by different masks and gestures. There was quite a lot of erotic and lewd content in the performances and as such pantomime was seen as a career for the lower classes. However, pantomime was very popular with all classes.

76) Bathyllus was one of the Maecenas’s slaves before becoming one of the most famous pantomime performers. Whether Maecenas had fallen in love with him while he was his slave is unlikely, but by the time Bathyllus had become a household name several years later the poet Horace (another of Maecenas’s protégés) was writing poems about their love affair. Perhaps Bathyllus was already a talented performer during his slave years and Maecenas recognised a future star in the making, granting him his freedom and became his mentor and lover.

Bathyllus made comedy his speciality. He quickly became a super-celebrity and it was thought at one time that he was the person who actually introduced pantomime into Rome, though it is now known that it existed beforehand.

Bathyllus had his rivals. Just like modern times when, at one time, you were either a Kylie fan or a Madonna fan, in Rome you were either a Bathyllus fan or a Pylades fan. Pylades was another super-celebrity pantomime performer. The two may have met before their careers began, for when Bathyllus was a slave of Maecenas Pylades was a slave of Emperor Augustus, Maecenas’s boss. The rivalry between the Bathyllus fans and the Pylades fans can be likened to that of football fans, or the British Mods and Rockers of the 1960s. Just like the Mods and Rockers, the fans of Bathyllus and Pylades clashed violently in the streets. In fact, Augustus banned Pylades from Rome until the rival gangs calmed down.

We don’t know when Bathyllus died. Pylades produced a pantomime festival in 2BC when he was too old to perform personally. We assume Bathyllus was about the same age and equally too old to perform, if he was still alive by then.

Even though Roman pantomime dropped in popularity in the 7th century elements of it survived in Italian theatre and partly influenced the “commedia dell’arte” of the 17th century. With the development of stock characters such as Harlequin, Columbine, Scaramouche and Pantaloon commedia dell’arte influenced the extremely popular modern form of British pantomime.

At this time of year almost every city, town and village in Britain puts on a pantomime. I’ve been in quite a few myself, dating back to my childhood days. One pantomime regularly tops the list of the most performed in any one year – Cinderella. The popularity of the story has, of course, spread beyond British theatre. The Disney cartoon is perhaps the most famous version. My personal favourite, however, is the 1976 British film “The Slipper and the Rose”. This was a significant film for the lgbt community, not because the Prince was played by (the now openly gay) Richard Chamberlain, but because it was the first film for which a transgender person received an Oscar nomination. That person was 77) Angela Morley (1924-2009).

Apart from the actual songs and main themes all of the music in “The Slipper and the Rose” is Angela’s – composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor. In 2011 I wrote about Angela’s musical successes which ranged from surreal radio comedy to Holocaust biography.

It’s difficult to explain briefly what an arranger and orchestrator does. Basically and arranger takes the music from a composer and decides arranges the tune to sound like heavy rock, burlesque, romantic ballet music or country and western. The orchestrator decides how many instruments play the finished piece of music and which part of the tune they play. Often the composer is also the arranger and orchestrator.

I can’t do justice to Angela Morley’s massive contribution to television and film music, so I suggest you look at her IMDb page. But here’s a video of famous scene from a famous film in which all the music you hear was composed by Angela Morley based on the main theme of the film written by her most famous regular collaborator, John Williams.

Angela Morley first came to my attention when I was a child listening to his music in BBC radio comedies. I’m still listening to them. Both of her main comedies are currently being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra every week. BBC radio was Angela’s big break in music, as it was for a star of one of those radio comedies, “Hancock’s Half Hour”. That other British comedy legend was 78) Kenneth Williams (1926-1988).

Next time : We Carry On with more comedy and end up being Mad About the Boy.

Around the World in Another 80 Gays : Part 20) The 41

Previously : 39) Ivor Novello (1893-1951) failed to become a Hollywood sex symbol, unlike 40) Ramon Novarro (1899-1968) who had escaped Mexico City after 41) Amelio Robles Avila (1889-1984) and the Zapatistas took it over in the Mexican Revolution, one of whose origins was in a scandal involving 42) The Dance of The 41 (1901).

Unlike the Sacred Band ofThebes in January I can’t represent 42) The Dance of The 41 with a single representative because their names have not been revealed. Only one name has been linked to The 41, that of Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, the son-in-law of Mexican President Diaz. Some of the allegations of Diaz’s corruption centred round the cover-up and conspiracy of silence that surrounded this homosexual scandal in 1901.

A contemporary satirical leaflet about the Dance of The 41.

The identities of The 41 was suppressed and removed from Mexican history, though the significance of their number as a derogatory term for homosexual men continues in the public consciousness today. There is no conclusive proof that Ignacio de la Torre y Mier was one of The 41 (or The 42), only rumours of his participation after the media began to report the incident.

Lgbt history is full of anonymous victims of persecution and the Dance of The 41 is a perfect example. All we know about them is that police raided a private address in Mexico City in the early hours of 17th November 1901. There the police found 41 men, 19 of them dressed as women, having a dance party. This was enough for them all to be arrested.

Most of those present at the party were probably members of the highest social levels in Mexico City, so there was enough pressure on President Diaz from powerful families to keep the names of those present secret.

No-one is sure what happened to The 41. It is said that half of them were released without charge through the influence of their wealthy families. The others were said to have been sentenced to hard labour in prison. Ever since then the number 41 has been stigmatised and associated with homosexuality. Even some hotels in Mexico have no Room 41. Over a century later the number 41 was reclaimed as a mark of honour by the lgbt community in much the same way as the Nazi pink triangle was in the 1970s.

43) Alberto B. Mendoza (b.1971), an activist living in the USA, was bullied at school in his native Mexico because of his sexuality. He was called “41” but didn’t realise the true origin of this insult until his 41st birthday when he decided to find out why. This led him to discover the story of the Dance of The 41 and to create a charity named after them which campaigns to combat homophobia in the Latin American and Hispanic communities.

Alberto’s charity, Honor41, produces an annual list of 41 lgbt Latin American pioneers and heroes from all walks of life. The first list was published in 2013. With over 200 names from which to continue my 80 Gays I took one at random. The name I chose was 44) Dr. Alicia Gaspar de Alba (b.1958).

Dr. Alicia Gaspar de Alba appeared on the 2016 Honor41 list. She is an academic at the University of California Los Angeles which she joined in 1994 and specialises in Hispanic studies and is a prolific writer on the subject.

Dr. Alicia was born in El Paso in Texas near the Mexican border. One incident near El Paso in the 1990s inspired her to write a mystery novel. The incident concerned the very real unsolved murders of over 500 Mexican women. Alicia spent several years researching their deaths. With so many questions and few answers Alicia decided to write a novel based on the murders. The novel, “Desert Blood” (published 2005), featured the murder of Mexican women and the problems of immigration and treatment of female immigrants by the authorities.

For “Desert Blood” Alicia received the Lambda Literary Award for the Best Lesbian Mystery. Murder and mystery is genre in which women have always been prominent. Writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ruth Rendell, P. D. James, among others, have produced some of the most popular mystery novels. Leading the lgbt contingent of female mystery writers are Val McDermid and Patricia Cornwell.

The person generally credited with starting the modern lesbian mystery genre is 45) Katherine V. Forrest (b.1939). Katherine’s 1984 novel “Amateur City” featured a lesbian homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department by the name of Kate Delafield, the first lesbian detective to feature in her own series of novels. Of the nine published books in the series Katherine Forrest has won 7 Lambda Literary Awards.

Katherine was also the fiction editor of Naiad Press for ten years. Naiad Press was one of the first publishing houses which concentrated on books by lesbian writers founded in 1973. In 2003 the founders retired and sold their stock and titles to another publisher specialising in lesbian literature, Bella Books.

Bella Books also produces foreign translations of their books. These include into French, German and Spanish. Some translations of Bella Books became the first novels published by LePress. Despite sounding French, this publishing company is based in the Czech Republic. The founder of LePress is 46) Markéta Navrátilová (b.1975).

Next time : Czech Pride takes to the air.

The Twelve Noëls of Christmas : 1

My Christmas theme this year follows the format of previous ones where I take “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as my inspiration. This year I’m creating a semi-French flavour by introducing the idea of “Joyeux Noël”. I’m also thinking of one of my favourite carols, “The First Noël the Angels Did Say” and have come up with my 2014 theme of “The Twelve Noëls of Christmas”.

Over this and the next three Sundays in Advent I’ll be looking at 12 lgbt people called Noel. Here are the first three, and there’s no more obvious person to start with than …

The 1^st Noël - SIR NOËL COWARD (1899-1973)

I’ve featured Sir Noël several times in my blog in the past – his ancestry, and his friendship with a war hero. Sir Noël is so well known that there’s very little I can say that is new, so I won’t bother. Instead I’ll concentrate on two lesser known Noels.

The 2^nd Noël – NOEL TOVEY (b.1934)

Noel Tovey’s life can be divided into three periods. The first begins in Melbourne, Australia, with Tovey’s birth on Christmas Day (hence Noel). He came from a mixed-heritage family – his father was half African-Creole and Scottish, and his mother was half Aboriginal and New Zealander. The family were poor and Noel’s childhood was far from ideal – his father was abusive and was imprisoned, and his mother was an alcoholic. Added to this was the racial stigma of being part Aboriginal. Before he was 13 Noel had been living on the streets working as a rent-boy. It was no surprise that he wanted to get as far away from this place as soon as possible.

In 1951 Noel was arrested with others who attended a private party hosted by a well-known drag performer named Max du Barry. The authorities seemed determined to have them all prosecuted for “the abominable crime of buggery”. Noel was forced into making a confession, which wasn’t true, and he spent 3 weeks in prison. During this time he considered suicide.

The rest of the 1950s were full of denial – denial of his racial heritage, and denial of his sexuality. As a lot of gay men did in the 1950s Noel got married and fathered a child. The marriage didn’t last and Noel discovered a new avenue to escape from the stress of his life – theatre. This was the start of the 2^nd period in his life.

In 1960 Noel arrived in the UK. He found work as a singer and dancer, and within a year was a principal dancer with Sadlers Wells. As his career grew he found himself working with stars such as Judy Garland, Dame Vera Lynn and Kenneth Branagh. He was also involved in the world premieres of “Oh! Calcutta!” and “The Boyfriend”. Researching 1920s dance for the latter earned him the job as consultant on the film “Murder on the Orient Express”.

By now Noel had accepted his sexuality and had a partner who, sadly, died of AIDS in 1986. Even though open about his sexuality Noel kept his racial background hidden. His partner’ death made him realise he could not hide everything forever, and this eventually led to the 3^rd and present period of his life.

Sitting on a beach in Sydney while on holiday Noel said he heard ancestral voices calling him back to live in his homeland. Noel had gained sufficient confidence in facing his heritage to make him move back. His reputation as a dancer and choreographer was high. He was in demand from many Australian theatres and dance groups. He even became part of the Olympic family in 2000 when he became Artistic Director of the Indigenous welcome ceremonies that greeted athletes and delegates to Sydney.

Noel also became an advocate of lgbt and Aboriginal rights, and more recently for older people’s rights. He was awarded a lifetime achievement award in 2010 from the {also}Foundation, and received an Indigenous Fellowship which enabled him to write his autobiography.

In September this year Noel was headline news again when the state government of Victoria overturned all historical convictions for gay sex, including Noel’s time in prison. So on top of his successes through the 2^nd and 3^rd periods of his life he won’t end his days as a convicted criminal because of the first.

The 3^rd Noel – NOEL CHEN

Noel Chen is a leading figure in the fight against Communist-led homophobia in Hong Kong. With it’s no-that-distant past as a British colony and it’s present protected special economic status Hong Kong saw many lgbt youngsters moving here to escape Chinese oppression. A vibrant lgbt culture was building up at the turn of the century but Chinese authorities still did their best to suppress any personal freedoms.

Noel Chen founded Rainbow Hong Kong in 1999, an lgbt support and campaigning group which provided advice and support. Rainbow also organised small conventions where activists from other parts of China came to speak. Chen also travels to the mainland to speak at events there.

The first major campaign organised by Chen came in 2001 after he was turned away from a blood donor centre because of his sexuality. This is a situation gay men have had to suffer in other countries since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began. Chen led a group of fellow activists and stormed a Red Cross event in Hong Kong in protest.

Later that year the Hong Kong police raided a local shop which sold S&M fetish gear. Chen led a protest against the police by having his fellow activists tie him to the iron fence outside the police station in pseudo-S&M manner. As the police removed him Chen gave a deliberately exaggerated show of pain, knowing that there was a lot of media present. The protest was broadcast across southern China.

Noel Chen isn’t well known outside Hong Kong and China, but his activism places him at the forefront of lgbt rights in southeast Asia.

Next Sunday I’ll tell you about the next three Noels of Christmas, when we learn about Victorian poetry, male beauty pageants and the Shroud of Turin.